The Kellogg Institute for International Studies, part of the University of Notre Dame’s new Keough School of Global Affairs, is an interdisciplinary community of scholars that promotes research, provides educational opportunities, and builds linkages related to democracy and human development.

Astghik Mkhitaryan

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I am a PhD student in Economics at University of Notre Dame. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Yerevan State University where I continued my studies in Business Administration. I also have a master’s degrees in Economics from International School of Economics at TSU (ISET).

Before joining the graduate program at Notre Dame in 2017, I worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) for four years. During my research career at CBA I specialized in the financial literacy issues, designing financial literacy trainings in 50 villages for almost 10,000 people based on randomized controlled trials and estimating the impact of these trainings on the behavior of the participants. This project continued at schools where financial literacy questions were combined with mathematical problems. I was on a team responsible for evaluating the impact of the program on the financial knowledge and financial behavior of current students.

At the same time, I was working on the estimation of trade effects on Armenia in entering the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). This issue was interesting for me as Armenia, having the lowest average import tariffs among the EEU members, would have to raise its import tariffs after the entry to create a unique tariff zone with the union members. This situation would result in significant changes in the economy of the country.

At Notre Dame I plan to continue my research in development and macroeconomics.